The Mondrian Dress

This is called the 'Mondrian Dress' made by Yves Saint Laurent in 1965.  It was inspired by Piet Mondrian's paintings, which have always fascinated me.  When Sophia asked if I would make her a 60's inspired dress for her Groovy Rock and Roll Read-a-thon, we googled 'iconic 60's fashion'.  This dress showed up a bunch of times and we thought it would be fun to try and recreate.  I started with this old pattern and really just used it as a guide, not even pinning the pattern pieces to the fabric.  The only exception were the sleeves, which I ended up just making them as short as possible.

 Then I cut out the blocks from the cheapest polyester fabric I found at Joanne's.  The back and front are really opposites, instead of mirror images.  Because Sophia is a little shorter than your typical model, I chose not to add the big white section in the middle.  I liked the colors better than the white.  I decided to go with a simple one button loop closer in the middle of the back (piece on the right) I'll add that picture when I get a minute.  Once I had the colors to my liking, I basted them on to the white (the white is one big piece I used as the main piece.  I made two of the white shifts so that I could line it as well.  I just sewed the neckline and flipped it in and then added the capped sleeves.  I really made this all in an afternoon, so I went with the quickest way I knew how.

The black lines are just single fold biased tape.  I added the black after I had the front and back assembled, but before I added the lining.  To hide all of the ends, I did all of the vertical lines, but one side one first (the side ones would be caught in the sleeve seam and hem).  Then I added the 2 horizontal ones and finally did the last vertical seam, making sure to catch all of the ends.

 It was a little windy while we were doing the photo shoot (there was actually a tornado warning at the time, but we only got a little wind).

Finally, I made a headband to match.  Probably going a little overboard, but it was fun to make and she has already declared she'll wear it with other things.